THE BOY ALLIES
WITH THE COSSACKS
OR
A Wild Dash Over The Carpathian Mountains
By CLAIR W. HAYES
AUTHOR OF
“The Boy Allies at Liège”
“The Boy Allies On the Firing Line”
“The Boy Allies In the Trenches”
Copyright, 1915
BY A. L. BURT COMPANY
THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS
ALEXIS–FROM HIS CANTEEN POURED WATER OVER THE LAD’S FACE.
Page 203. The Boy Allies With the Cossacks.
THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS.
CHAPTER I.
FLYING.
“What’s that below, Hal?”
The speaker was Chester Crawford, an American lad of some 16years.
Hal Paine allowed his eyes to turn from the steering wheel andglanced over the side of the flying aëroplane.
“I don’t see anything,” he replied, after acareful scrutiny below.
“Neither do I, now,” said Chester, straining hiseyes.
At this moment the third occupant of the machine made his presenceknown.
“Woof! Woof!” he exclaimed.
The third speaker was Marquis, a dog.
“Woof! Woof!” he barked again.
Hal, with a quick move, slackened the speed of the aëroplane, andlet it glide gently closer to the earth.
“Must be something wrong,” he confided to Chester,“or Marquis wouldn’t be barking like that.”
Both lads peered into the darkness that engulfed them on all sides.As far as the eye could penetrate there was nothing but blackness,solid, intense.
“Let’s go a little lower, Hal,” whisperedChester.
Under Hal’s firm hand the aëroplane came down gently, until atlast it was soaring close to the treetops. And now, suddenly, both ladsmade out the cause of Marquis’s uneasiness.
Beneath them were thousands upon thousands of armed men. To thenorth, to the south, and to the east and west the dense mass ofhumanity stretched out. Hal and Chester, flying close to the earth, atlast could make out moving forms below them.
Suddenly it became light. Not broad daylight, but the darkness gaveway enough for the lads to distinguish what lay below them. The dawn ofanother day was breaking.
At the same instant that the lads made out the huge mass of humanityupon the ground their presence in the air was discovered. There camethe sound of a single shot and the whiz of a bullet, as it sped closeto Hal’s ear.
With a quick movement the lad sent the plane soaring high in the aironce more. So sudden was the movement that Chester, caught unprepared,lost his balance, and saved himself from tumbling to the ground only byclutching the side of the machine. Marquis also had a narrow escapefrom being thrown out. He let out a loud yelp of fear, as he was thrownviolently against Chester. The lad threw out a hand and grabbed him bythe scruff of the neck, just as it seemed he would plunge to certaindestruction.
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